The former Anne Arundel County register of wills who was booted from office last year for misconduct faces new legal problems following a shoplifting conviction.
Erica Griswold was convicted in Anne Arundel County District Court in Glen Burnie Thursday following a nearly 90-minute trial. The conviction is likely to trigger a violation in her probation for a 2024 guilty plea related to stealing more than $6,600.
Griswold, sitting at the defense table, shook her head in disagreement as prosecutors recounted her theft of a dozen household items valued at more than $160.
“I’m just really sorry that all this is happening and that it happened,” Griswold told Anne Arundel District Court Judge Shaem Spencer before receiving her sentence at the end of a bench trial.
“My intention was clear, I thought, on that day,” she said. “I did not intend on concealing, or taking, or stealing anything. It is not who I am or what I do.”
Prosecutors said that Griswold knowingly and intentionally failed to ring up and pay for items before attempting to leave a Walmart in Severn on March 18.
A security employee from the store said she spotted Griswold on cameras pushing a cart laden with merchandise. From those cameras, the employee said she watched as Griswold failed to ring some items and used a tag from a reusable bag costing less than a dollar to make it appear she was scanning other items.
Defense attorneys countered that a conviction requires that a person knowingly and intentionally act. Griswold’s public defender described the checkout as “chaotic,” with items being scanned and placed on all sides of the register and on the floor and in a second empty cart provided by a store employee.
During her own testimony, Griswold said she was rushing out of the store because of a call about an uncle who had just been admitted to the hospital. Under cross-examination, she told prosecutors that the call came just as she arrived at the self-checkout lane.
Griswold said she remembered telling store security, “God has his way of showing me things and that day it was to slow down.”
Video of the area did not show a phone call. Griswold and her attorney offered no other evidence of a call or hospital admission.
During the cross-examination, prosecutors also attempted to bring in Griswold’s 2024 guilty plea for misconduct in office, but Spencer agreed with the defense to block admission of that information. The judge also said Griswold’s explanation of events lacked credibility, however.
“I’m sworn to uphold the law, but I do not check my common sense at the door,” Spencer said.
Particularly damning to Griswold’s case was a 21-minute video. Spencer watched the video, which showed Griswold with an overflowing cart, completing four separate transactions.
Griswold and her attorney described a chaotic scene that included multiple assists from a store employee during those separate transactions.
Spencer said he saw something else — Griswold scanning items the judge said he believed were lower cost. Then Griswold “concealed” other unscanned items or moved more expensive items into her cart, Spencer said.
The video was not played in open court. Instead, it was described in turns by the judge, a store security guard, and prosecutors.
Spencer silently viewed it twice from the bench using a laptop provided by prosecutors. As he watched, he made notes on a yellow legal pad.
Griswold also viewed a portion of the video — shown to impeach part of her testimonty – from the prosecution’s laptop.
Spencer sentenced Griswold to 6 months in jail but suspended that sentence and added 3 years supervised probation. He also ordered her to pay a fine equal to the value of the merchandise she attempted to steal. (A Walmart employee told the court the items were restocked for sale after they documented them for evidence in the case.)
Griswold expressed concern that her 2024 case cast a cloud over this trial, affecting her sentence, but Spencer cut her off, saying he blocked prosecutors from introducing the case in court and refused to hear details about it.
Griswold has 30 days to appeal Spencer’s ruling.
In the meantime, she also faces the likelihood of going back before the Anne Arundel County Circuit Court judge who sentenced her last summer.
At the time, Griswold was the county register of wills. She had just pleaded guilty to stealing and cashing a $6,645 check intended to pay estate taxes.
Anne Arundel Circuit Judge Stacy McCormack in July imposed a term of 18 months in prison, but suspended the sentence and tacked on two years of supervised probation. Griswold was immediately removed from office as a result of the plea.
Thursday’s conviction will likely trigger a violation of that sentence and land Griswold back in Circuit Court where she could face additional sanctions, including all or part of the suspended jail term.
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